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(HKG) . HKG employs about 180,000 civil servants and has a more sophisticated administration than other dependent territories. It is increasingly accountable to
representational bodies and closely scrutinized by the local media. HKG already has a large degree of autonomy, which we wish to reinforce. It would be anachronistic to sustain colonial procedures, and to do so might encourage the Chinese, notwithstanding the Basic Law, to seek to take them
over after 1997.
The current practice also creates much time-consuming paperwork for HKG and the FCO. The approval is a rubber-stamp in most cases. Resources could be better employed on other tasks.
8.
We and HKG therefore consider that we should reduce the number of offices to which appointment or promotion requires the Secretary of State's approval, bringing HMG's role into line with the role to be performed by China after 1997. Article 48 (5) of the Basic Law states that the Chief
Executive shall nominate and report to the CPG for appointment, various principal officials. Some of the nomenclature is novel, but HKG have identified the
comparable existing posts. These are listed at Annex A. We see no need to require the Secretary of State's approval for any other offices.
9. We have considered whether the proposed changes would have any risks for our interests in the period up to 1997, eg if exceptional circumstances arose in which the Governor began to appoint as Deputy Secretaries persons who seemed to us unsuitable (eg because they were unacceptable to Peking). We have concluded that there is no significant danger here. Such a clash between HMG and the Governor is hard to imagine and HMG would continue to have a variety of
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